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Annual Report LSE MIDDLE EAST CENTRE ANNUAL REPORT 2013/2014 The Middle East Centre builds on LSE’s long engagement with the Middle East and provides a central hub for the wide range of research on the region carried out around the School. The Middle East Centre works to enhance understanding and develop rigorous research on the societies, economies, politics and international relations of the region. The Centre promotes both specialised knowledge and public understanding of this crucial area and has outstanding strengths in interdisciplinary research and in regional expertise. As one of the world′s leading social science institutions, LSE comprises departments covering all branches of the social sciences. The Middle East Centre harnesses this expertise to promote innovative multidisciplinary research and understanding of the region. Activities • Promoting independent and critical research on the Middle East and North Africa; • Fostering open and critical debate about the politics, societies and economics of the region; • Disseminating knowledge about the Middle East through Centre’s lectures, web resources and publications and through LSE’s community and media activities; • Providing a rich research environment for scholars and students; • Establishing and cultivating ties with scholars in Middle East and international institutions. Funders In 2012-2013, the Centre’s work has been generously supported by: • The Emirates Foundation • The Aman Trust • Oxfam GB • Scholar Rescue Fund, Institute of International Education • LSE Scholars at Risk • Council for Assisting Refugee Academics • The Abraaj Group • Chevron • The Foreign and Commonwealth Office INTRODUCTION WELCOME 1 WELCOME My first year as Centre Director has been a very busy, eventful and fruitful one. As the Centre continues to grow, with new members of staff joining our team, our activities are diversifying in terms of the subjects we are studying and the areas of the Middle East we are interacting with. Our events programme continues to prosper and our reach, in terms of the impact of our work, the attendance at our events and the readership of our publications, continues to expand. Our research collaboration programme with Arab Universities has received an overwhelmingly positive response and produced world-class research. It also continues to grow, with five new projects set to start this year, bringing more LSE colleagues into the Centre, raising the total number of projects led by the Centre up to 13. In April, we organised the first LSE Middle East Alumni Forum in Dubai, which brought together the alumni community in the region with School Director, Craig Calhoun, and senior academics for a wide-ranging and stimulating discussion. Following on from that successful event, we will run yearly alumni meetings in Dubai as part of the LSE Global Forum series. The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World, the Centre’s first edited volume was published by Cambridge University Press earlier this year. It is the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary study to examine the causes, drivers, and effects of the events of the Arab Spring. Edited by Professor Fawaz Gerges, contributors included a mix of well- established academics and experts working on the region. In addition to the book, our publications have dramatically expanded this year. We published a number of research papers as part of our MEC Papers Series, a further three events proceedings from our workshops and are currently finalising reports summarising the outcome of our collaborative research projects with Arab universities. This year also marked the completion of our research project led by Dr Aitemad Muhanna-Matar and supported by Oxfam GB on ‘Women’s Political Participation across the Arab region: Mapping of Existing and New Emerging Forces in the Region’. After a year of fieldwork in 5 different countries (Egypt, Morocco, the occupied Palestinian territory, Tunisia and Yemen), the project culminated with the publication of a research paper by Dr Muhanna-Matar presenting the research findings. Finally, we have also made major changes to our Emirates Scholarship Programme this year, launching a new Master’s scholarship in addition to our final year PhD funding. This will allow us to offer financial support to up to three LSE students from Arab states who intend to focus their studies on the Middle East. This will be an excellent opportunity to bring into the School the best students from across the region, who would otherwise not have been able to pursue this life-changing opportunity. Looking back over the past year’s achievements, I am certain that next year at the Middle East Centre will be as, if not more, productive. With this in mind, I would like to thank the hard working and innovative staff of the Centre, the members of LSE faculty who support the Centre’s work, the organisations who fund it and, most importantly, those who read our publications attend our meetings and benefit from our work. Professor Toby Dodge 2 INTRODUCTION PEOPLE Emma Pearson PEOPLE Communications Assistant Centre Staff After completing her Master’s degree in Middle Eastern Politics at Birkbeck College, Emma Pearson joined the MEC to assist with the Centre’s communications and events Professor Toby Dodge programme. She is also Communications Assistant at Director BRISMES, managing the Society’s e-publications. Toby Dodge joined the MEC as Director in September 2013. He is also Professor of International Relations at LSE. His Dr Aitemad Muhanna-Matar research concentrates on the evolution of the post-colonial Research Fellow state in the international system, with a main focus on the Aitemad Muhanna-Matar joined the MEC in November 2012 Middle East, specifically Iraq. His main publications include to pursue her post-doctoral research on gender, religion and Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied sustainable human development in the Gaza Strip. Today, (2005) and Iraq: From War to a New Authoritarianism (2013). her research concentrates on Salafist youth in Tunisia and the process of subjectification. Prior to that, she led the Robert Lowe Centre’s research on ‘Women’s Political Participation across Manager the Arab Region’, funded by Oxfam GB. Her book, Agency and Robert Lowe has managed the Centre since it opened in 2010. Gender in Gaza, was recently published by Ashgate. He was previously Manager and Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House. His Dr Zeynep Kaya publications include Co-editor, The Kurdish Policy Imperative Research Fellow (2010); ‘Kurdish Nationalism in Syria’, in M. Ahmed and M. Zeynep Kaya is leading a research project investigating the Gunter (eds.), The Evolution of Kurdish Nationalism (2007); and role of international actors in enhancing women’s rights Co-editor, Aid, Diplomacy and Facts on the Ground: The Case of after a military intervention, taking the Kurdistan Region of Palestine (2005). Iraq as a case study. Prior to that, she completed her PhD in International Relations at LSE. Zeynep is also working on her Ribale Sleiman Haidar book, The Idea of Kurdistan: International Norms and Nationalism, Coordinator for the University of Pennsylvania Press. Originally from Beirut, Ribale Sleiman Haidar moved to London in 2009 to pursue her Master’s degree in Design for Dr Filippo Dionigi Development at Kingston University London. She joined the Post-doctoral Researcher MEC in August 2011 after working for Climate Week, Britain’s Filippo Dionigi is Fellow at LSE and his research focuses on largest climate change campaign. Ribale runs the Academic international norms and Islamist movements in the Middle Collaboration Programme with Arab Universities and the East. He has completed his PhD in International Relations at Centre’s communications work. LSE and is presently working on his book, Hezbollah, Islamist Politics and International Society. He has been awarded a three Sara Masry year Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, and will be based Administrator full-time in the MEC from October 2014. Sara Masry joined the Centre in June 2013 after completing her Master’s degree in International Studies and Diplomacy Professor Fawaz Gerges and her Bachelor’s degree in Politics at SOAS. Prior to joining Emirates Chair in Contemporary Middle East Studies the MEC, Sara worked for the MENA Programme at Chatham Fawaz Gerges is Professor of International Relations at LSE House. Sara is mainly responsible for running the Centre’s and holder of the Emirates Professorship in Contemporary events programme. Middle East Studies. He was also the Director of the Middle East Centre from 2010 until 2013. His most recent books are Editor, The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World (2013), and Obama and the Middle East: The End of America’s Moment? (2013). INTRODUCTION PEOPLE 3 Visiting Appointments Dr Kristian Coates Ulrichsen Visiting Fellow Kristian Coates Ulrichsen researches Gulf politics and Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed Visiting Professor foreign policies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston. He is also Associate Fellow on the MENA Madawi Al-Rasheed joined the MEC as Visiting Professor Programme at Chatham House and an affiliate faculty at the in 2013. She is also Research Fellow at the Open Society Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Foundation. She was Professor of Anthropology of Religion Washington. His latest book entitled The First World War in the at King’s College London between 1994 and 2013. Her latest Middle East, was published by Hurst in 2014. publications include A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics and Religion in Saudi Arabia (2013) and A History of Saudi Arabia (2010). Dr Mohammed Ibahrine Visiting Fellow Dr Malihe Maghazei Visiting Fellow Dr Mohammed Ibahrine joined the MEC as Visiting Fellow from the American University of Sharjah, where he is Originally from Iran, Malihe Maghazei is an historian of the Assistant Professor of Mass Communication. While based Middle East with focus on gender.
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